The provisioning of various services using prepaid accounts has proliferated over the past decade in applications such as, for example, prepaid telephone services using prepaid cards. Such prepaid cards are usually sold through retail outlets and typically have imprinted information on the cards including an access telephone number and a prepaid services account identification number.
In accordance with one prior implementation of these services, the customer dials the access telephone number imprinted on the card and is then prompted to input the prepaid services account identification number as well as the telephone number the customer desires to call. In this implementation, the service platform determines if there is an available balance associated with the customer account, and if so, the customer is connected to the called number. The cost for the call is then typically decremented from the account balance.
A significant problem associated with the retail sale of prepaid telephone cards is related to the cash-like nature of such cards. Specifically, anyone who gains access to the prepaid services account identification number and the access telephone number can use the prepaid balance. Therefore, in order to prevent the unauthorized use of such prepaid cards, various security measures have been devised. For example, a high level of security is required to prevent the theft of account identification numbers and access telephone numbers by those involved in the manufacturing process of prepaid cards. Additionally, the sale of such cards at retail outlets initially required that checkout personnel hold the cards until they were sold in order to prevent customers from obtaining the critical numbers from cards that are openly displayed. This was disadvantageous in that securely maintaining the cards with checkout personnel, rather than offering them on an open display, very significantly limited sales and was therefore a significant marketing concern.
Therefore, various security-related processes have been implemented in order to permit open display of prepaid telephone cards while maintaining the security of critical information, such as the prepaid services account identification number. For example, such critical information can be covered with scratch-off material to prevent others from copying the information from openly displayed cards. However, this does not prevent the theft of cards from an open display and the subsequent use of such stolen cards by the thieves. Therefore, in order to address the concern of the theft of openly displayed cards, cards are frequently not activated until they are actually purchased. In one such activation technique, typically performed at the point-of-sale of prepaid cards, the card is attached to a hang-tag for display purposes, but has a bar code imprinted on it. When a customer desires to buy a card, that customer removes the card from the display and delivers it to the personnel at the checkout counter. Upon receipt of payment, the checkout person scans the bar code and the information is transmitted, usually in real-time, to a service platform. The card is then activated by the service platform. Thereafter, the customer removes the scratch off material to obtain the critical information (once again, for example, the account identification number) and uses the prepaid telephone service as described above. Thus, since the card is openly displayed it is accessible to retail customers while, at the same time, if the card is stolen from the display it can not by used because it has not been activated
However, a significant security problem remains in that, if the card is purchased by a customer and is subsequently lost, anyone who finds the card will have access to the critical information and may then be able to use the balance remaining in the account. This lost card problem is recognized by those in the industry as a significant hindrance to the sale of prepaid cards. Thus, various methods of solving the lost card problem have been devised. Specifically, in one prior attempt, a prepaid card was provided with an identification code and a replacement identification code with the replacement identification code illustratively printed on a separate document from the prepaid card. Thus, if the card was lost, the consumer provided the replacement code to the card issuer and the card issuer issued a new card to the consumer. However, this attempt was still subject to the problem of potential theft or fraud by employees of the issuer of the phone cards. Therefore, in another prior attempt, the card was issued a security code only at time of activation—the prepaid cards were not shipped with a security code. However, this was still problematic in that the cards were not replaceable. Thus, if the card was lost, there was no provision for recovering the lost balance remaining on the card. Additionally, even if some form of replacement service were provided (as described in the attempt above), the consumer was still encumbered with an absolute requirement of choosing a security code.